WHAT’S YOUR SCREEN?

by Sharon Ruff

I keep my 70-pound chocolate lab successfully confined to certain parts of the house simply by putting a window screen across doorways. The Truth is she could easily step over the screens, or if she only barely bumped them with her body they would topple over. There is nothing in the natural realm that keeps her confined; however, in her mind she believes The Lie that she is a victim of the screen and unable to overcome.

You see, when she was just a puppy she saw a squirrel outside and didn’t notice the screen in the door. She bolted into the screen and it came crashing down. It didn’t fall on her but the noise of the crash startled her so much that she has been traumatized by screens ever since. Even though The Truth is that she can now easily discern when the screen door is there and has never crashed into it again, the memory of the first event has forever marked her that “screens” have power over her.

Aren’t we the same way? You might have experienced a traumatic event in your life as well that has left a permanent lie embedded in your memory. It now controls your response to any situation that is similar to that first hurtful event. I’m sure there are probably behavioral training techniques that could “set my dog free” from her fears, but actually, I use that fear to control her behavior and confine her to only certain areas of the house.

Do you see the correlation here? The enemy takes deep traumas and hurtful memories from our lives and then uses these to “confine” and limit our ability to live in the fullness that God created us for. Jesus said in John 10:10 The thief’s purpose is to steal, kill and destroy. My purpose is to give life in all its fullness.
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Let’s ask God to show us the “screens” in our own lives that are limiting our ability to become all that God has called us to be.

Father, we need Your help. We have limited ourselves because of fear, insecurity, and rejection. Will You show us where these original wounds are in our lives and give us the grace to forgive those who were involved in the hurts. We choose to let go of The Lie and take hold of The Truth from 2 Timothy 1:7:

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. NKJV

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